[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 98 (Thursday, June 15, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LENINGRAD TRIALS

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                           HON. PETER T. KING

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 15, 1995
  Mr. KING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to participate in the observance 
of the 25th anniversary of the arrests and beginning of the Leningrad 
Trials, the seminal event in the effort to rally support for the 
beleaguered and persecuted Jewish community in the Soviet Union.
  In remembering the Leningrad Trials, I also want to recognize one of 
my constituents, Lynn Singer, who has been a tireless advocate on 
behalf of Soviet Jewry and, more recently, a crusader against official 
and unofficial anti-semitism in the former Soviet Union. Lynn, as the 
longtime executive director of the Long Island Committee for Soviet 
Jewry [LICSJ], has developed an international reputation as a result of 
her persistence, determination and leadership in the cause of human 
rights and freedom. I am proud to be her Representative in the People's 
House and to have participated in LICSJ vigils, demonstrations and 
marches. I look forward to continuing to work with Lynn Singer in the 
weeks and months ahead.
  As many Members of this institution will recall, 25 years ago, a 
group of courageous young men and women from around the Soviet Union 
met to develop a plan to fly to freedom and realize the impossible 
dream of emigrating to the land of their choice.
 In spite of knowing the KGB had learned of their plans and that they 
faced severe penalties if they were apprehended, a few of these men and 
women bought tickets on a small commuter plane destined for Norway. 
Tragically, before even boarding the plane, Soviet police arrested each 
of them.

  Far from crushing the fledgling human rights movement in the Soviet 
Union, this event focused attention on the plight of Soviet Jewry and 
all those who wanted secure basic human rights for people behind the 
Iron Curtain. In response to the Leningrad Trials, organizations were 
formed in the United States to monitor human rights conditions in the 
U.S.S.R. and win the freedom of Jewish refusniks. This grassroots 
movement succeeded in keeping human rights an issue on the 
international stage and put enormous pressure on the Kremlin during 
periods of cold war, detente, the Reagan defense build-up, perestroika 
and, finally, the collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
  That is why we should take time today to remember the sacrifice of 
those who, at great risk to themselves and their loved ones, made a 
stand when things were the very bleakest--Anatoly Altman, Hillel 
Butman, Mark Dymshitz, Leib Khnokh, Edward Kuznitsov, Joseph 
Mendilovich, Boris Penson, Wulf Zulmanson, Israel Zalmanson and Sylvia 
Zalmanson, all living in Israel, and Yuri Federov and Aleksei 
Murzhenko, now living in the United States.
  I hope all in this chamber will join with me to make certain that the 
courage demonstrated in the winning struggle for freedom will never be 
forgotten.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to again recognize the many 
good works and accomplishments of my constituent, Lynn Singer, as well 
as the many supporters of the LICSJ and all those in the United States 
and around the world who demonstrated their concern about prisoners of 
conscience in the U.S.S.R. since June 15, 1970. Thank you.


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